sick six

i think that new motor called the sick six looks like a piece of junk.it may have good horsepower and good mpg but anybody who has to replace the water pump will have a heafty bill.anytime you need to remove the valve covers and accesories to get to the timing cover and remove it to get to the water pump will be in for a suprise when the bill is due .i have done 2.7 dodge motors that have a similar set up and the bill is at least 1000$for a water pump the engineers couldn't have designed a better and cheeper way after all water pumps go bad all the time and usually after the warrenty runs out  

Hey, dealerships need to make money besides selling Ziebart/Rusty Jones....

Seriously, tho, you think about the good ol' days, the engineers always seemed to put the radiator petcock right over a frame rail...what's up with that?  You try to drain the radiator out to boil it w/ a 50% vinegar mix, and the stream hits the frame rail and sprays everywhere....  

the motor has tons of potential, it's not everyone's cup of tea though.  

I made the switch from big v-8's (Pontiac) to turbocharged and NA 4 cylinders in the late 90's. I come here because the tech articles are second to none, and the same wisdom and rules of thumb still apply. a motor is a motor is a motor.

The beauty of direct injection is charge cooling. Old school was to pipe in air from outside the engine bay, lower temp thermostats, then later thermal barrier coatings on intake manifolds, etc. The rule of thumb that applies is for every 10* drop in intake temps you get rewarded with detonation suppression equivalent to 1 octane point.

The biggest limitation is the temp drop is related to ambient temps and heat rejection from the intake charge, you can only do so much. Direct injection takes it way further. Compressing a gas heats it, the multiple injection sequences on a single cylinder so efficiently reduce charge temps you can get away with a high compression ratio and forced injection. Vaporization of fuel directly in the chamber means the cooling effects mitigates the heat picked up in the intake tract vs. a port injection or wet flow manifold. Adding an injection cycle as the combustion charge is being compressed lowers the rise in temp caused by compressing it. If you could compare the temps in cylinder between a port injection or carbureted motor to a direct injection (DI) motor, and apply the 1 octane point to 10* temp drop rule of thumb it'd be obvious what the advantages are.

The multiple injection events can also allow for a stratification of fuel air ratios within the cylinder. Meaning the global AFR can be in a lean range and the pocket near the plug can be locally rich to optimize flame front propagation.  

The GT15 turbochargers the motor runs are tiny in comparison to what the motor is capable of. Stepping up the size of the turbos is going to really bump the output of the motor. The limiting factor is the fuel injector flow capability and the complex injection scheme. The first band-aid you'll see will most likely be supplemental standard injectors added to the intake manifold to meet the fuel demands of more air flow. The problem is the reduction of the efficiency of the DI system.  

If I had the choice between a V-8 mustang and a DI turbo 6, I'd take the 6. All you have to do is look at a Buick GN and 3.8L of turbocharged fun on a primitive engine management system and you can draw a good parallel and catch a glimpse into the future of this powertrain. I foresee this motor hurting a lot of feelings.  

DUDE ENGINES NOW DAYS NORMALY GO AT LEAST 150,000 MILES WITHOUT WORRY! ANY ENGINE THAT SMALL THAT MAKES THAT KIND OF POWER AND FUEL ECONOMY HAS MY RESPECT! IT TOOK UNTIL 1993 FOR CHEVY TO MAKE 300HP WITH THERE SMALL BLOCK! AND THIS WAS WITH THERE OWN WORDS! AND IT WAS NOT TO LONG AGO THE SMALL BLOCK FORD THAT CHEVY MADE (EXCUSE ME) LS CHEVY DIDNT MAKE MUCH MORE. AND BOTH SMALL BLOCKS NEVER GOT THAT KIND OF GAS MILEAGE!